1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a waste toner container, such as a copier, facsimile machine, printer, or the like.
2. Description of the Background Art
Generally, image forming apparatuses have a waste toner container, which collects waste toner ejected from image forming units when image forming operations are conducted. When the waste toner container becomes full or nearly full of waste toner, the waste toner container is removed from the apparatus and replaced.
With the spread of high-speed printing operations recently, the amount of waste toner generated has increased substantially and replacement of the waste toner container is carried out more frequently than ever. Replacement frequency can be reduced by employing waste toner containers of greater size, but doing so means an increase in weight of the waste toner containers when full, requiring operators to exert greater force to replace the waste toner container.
In light of the above-described situation, JP-H10-319805-A discloses a configuration in which a plurality of rollers are attached to the bottom of the waste toner container, so that the waste toner container can be easily mounted in a storage chamber of the container, or removed from the storage chamber.
However, with the configuration described in JP-H10-319805-A, because the rollers are attached to the bottom of the waste toner container, the waste toner container mounted in the apparatus may exit the apparatus if the apparatus is vibrated and the rollers begin to rotate.